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Email letters, Nov. 9, 2012

The battle is over. The president is Barack Obama and the House is Republican. By most accounts we are a more divided nation than we have been in 50 years. Outside of cities, we are pretty much red or at least pink. President Obama won re-election by dividing the country effectively on the basis of economic status, age and gender. With all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, it will still be a tough job to put us back together again.

We are likely to be faced with ongoing high unemployment and higher costs for items such as food, health care and gas at the pump. Corporations have stockpiled cash, and many in the older middle class have put away funds for a rainy day. Those who have prepared will get through this period with less pain.

The good news for those more concerned about fiscal responsibility than abortion on demand is that the House will keep a short leash on the president. He will have to compromise to get anything done on spending and tax issues.

Although the fact is often lost on the young, single women and minorities, economic growth is primarily the result of private investment. Most investors are older ordinary people who have put together a nest egg for retirement through hard work and thrift.

The government has to earn the respect of these investors to attract the capital needed to grow our economy. Investors vote with their capital. Unlike taxes, the government cannot force people in a free society to invest. Investors are not this president’s natural constituency.

DAVE KEARSLEYMesa

Foes of females felt feminine fury

Regarding the comment about the “Tea party blames ‘weak’ Romney,” these people are completely clueless. They are the ones to blame for Romney losing and only because Romney allowed their loud mouths to speak for him and the Republican Party about stupid and ignorant topics such as legitimate rape.

Thankfully, those that spouted this ignorance were voted out of office. The tea party and other misogynistic politicians need to wake up to the wrath of women and men that they alone prompted.

Live and let live -— isn’t that our most basic intent?
Republicans, you are the party of Lincoln, the party of emancipation. And you have forgotten. The melting pot congregated in our urban areas is busy building life and businesses without you.

It’s a terrible and long road to “all men are created equal.” But bit by bit, decade by decade, equal becomes more equal.

Maybe it’s time to allow God to take care of the sinners while you practice your beliefs without imposing them on others. Let the excellence of your behavior be the tool to convert others. And consider that maybe more Christians prayed for Obama to win than those who prayed for him to lose.

Isn’t it time for you to see brown and black skin as more than housekeepers, janitors, gardeners? For all of your hatred of “welfare,” consider that you have the opportunity to abolish it without passing laws.

There are no grocery stores in the Detroit ghetto. Wal-Mart and Kroger are afraid. People can buy liquor and fast food, but not tomatoes. There are also drug gangs with people who apparently can buy and sell and count. But you are afraid, and you don’t think they are worth the opportunity.

But check out what narrow minds miss — Harlem in New York City. President Clinton built his office and foundation there. And now Harlem is the coolest place in New York —great restaurants and shops and condominiums and young professionals —- of all colors -— moving in. The Harlem awakening required no laws or affirmative action.

So, Republicans, you didn’t reach your goal of a permanent majority in Washington. You may have the land, but not the population. And if you continue missing opportunities of equality, the money will go elsewhere, too.

The recent editorial page article by Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post Writers Group implies that only conservative Republicans provided large amounts of money for the past presidential campaign.

Why didn’t she mention the likes of George Soros or labor unions by name? Her real implication is that monies given to support Romney’s candidacy were a form of corruption.

From reports, it appears that maybe $3 billion was spent in total on the past presidential campaign. That is about the same amount that we are adding to the national debt every day.

E. WAYNE MCCALLA
Fruita

GOP can rebuild nation by starting on local level

Tuesday night’s election was the end of a long-fought battle. Many of us in rural America had no idea the outcome would turn out the way it did. We figured given the economy, global tensions, debt, deficit, unemployment and gas prices there was no way Obama could possibly be re-elected.

We were wrong. The blame games of our loss have already started; our candidate was too conservative, our candidate was too liberal, our candidate was too successful, our candidate was too nice, our candidate was too Mormon. For every disgruntled voter there is a different reason why we lost the most important election of our lifetime. Whether all or none of these reasons is true, the fact still remains that we have Barack Hussein Obama as the leader of the free world for four more years.

I know many of you would like to find a place to hide for the next four years, hoping that it will all go away, but we all know that things are only going to get worse. There will be more debt, more deficits and much more government to deal with before this president leaves office. In other words, there will be a huge mess that we will need to clean up. The midterm election, in two years, will be our next chance to right some of the wrongs that will have already taken place and repair damage that will be done in the next two years.

We cannot give up and we cannot surrender. This country has faced and overcome many challenges in the past, including civil war, depressions, nuclear destruction and many more. Right now the dollar is collapsing, the debt is unsustainable and we are on the path of many failing European economies, but this is not the time to roll over and give up.

This is when we need to dig our heels in and overcome the forces of a corrupt mainstream media, an uninformed electorate and power-hungry government bureaucrats who are shredding the Constitution.

How do we do this, you ask? We start local—school boards, town councils, political party leadership, etc. All politics are local, and we need to begin pushing against the bureaucracies and their unfunded mandates that are destroying our way of life and our country.

Don’t give up. Even though we will be paying the price for this election for many years, there is still hope and we can make America what our Founding Fathers envisioned.

DON SUPPESChairman
Delta County Republican Central Committee
Eckert

Conservatives may wish to join American Constitution Party

Look, it’s very simple, conservatives. This party is going to continue to treat you like the crazy uncle they simply HAVE to invite to holidays for as long as you are willing to accept it.

Conservatives in the Republican Party are a bit like abused wives; we stay because the abuser keeps promising to do something for us. These are broken promises because the “big tent” siren keeps calling the party away from us.

But like abused wives, we have to understand that things are never going to get better so long as we tolerate the abuse. Simply skipping the elections does send a message, but maybe not the right one. In this case, it may simply compel the party to appease the moderates by abandoning its conservative stands.

There is only one answer: Get out. Leave the party, but don’t just float out there. The American Constitution Party is where you will find other people who are just like you. Then get active in that party.

I have said for years that I didn’t leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left me. I am EXACTLY where I was, on the issues, 30 years ago when Reagan was POTUS.

The long train of moderates the party insists on running, combined with a Congress that spent like a drunken sailor who won the lottery made me take a good long look. Then there was the open contempt the party threw on conservatives. They still do it today, blaming the purists and tea partiers for this loss. (Beating the wife.)

Please, if you love this country, stop doing the same things we’ve been doing for decades. The R/D cycle is killing freedom and the free market system. We must get back to the party of Washington—love of country first.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which recently surpassed stroke as the third leading cause of death in the United States, claims more lives annually than breast cancer and diabetes combined. Yet symptoms of COPD — frequent shortness of breath, chronic cough, wheezing and excessive phlegm production — are often ignored and dismissed as normal signs of aging or of being out of shape. This explains why 12 million Americans are living with this serious disease but don’t know it, and, furthermore, don’t think it warrants a trip to the doctor.

COPD is the only major disease that continues to show annual increased mortality rates. In recent years, more women than men have died from COPD. The death rate among women nearly tripled from 1980 to 2005 and remained about the same for men during this time period.

In people who have COPD, the airways — tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs — are partially blocked, which make it hard to breathe. This dramatically compromises a person’s quality of life by making simple daily tasks such as walking up stairs, shopping or singing along to a favorite song difficult.

With approximately one in five Americans over the age of 45 suffering from COPD, it is likely that we each know someone who has the symptoms. The good news is that COPD can be treated.

This November, as part of National COPD Awareness Month, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is asking people who may be exhibiting symptoms of COPD to listen to their lungs. Talk with a health care provider about a simple test called spirometry and take the first step toward managing and treating your COPD and improving your quality of life.